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Your FICO score is important when it comes to buying a home. Your ability to qualify for a bank loan, as well as the terms of that loan, is dependent on your credit score, as is whether you're able to finance or access your equity down the road. Whether you are buying a home or already own one, lenders want to see a positive FICO score that indicates good credit history. For this reason, FICO score is important even beyond the initial purchase of the home.

Credit repair can be a tricky business, and no matter how you choose to go about it, it generally takes some time to accomplish. But what if you need to improve your FICO score fast? Say you need a better score to get qualified for a line of credit, buy a new car or refinance your house. What can you do to raise your credit score quickly? Here are four steps you can take to boost your score for a multipronged approach to credit repair.

1. Check Your Credit Report

The first thing you need to do to start working on your credit is to give your report a thorough review. Be sure there are no errors, and get an idea of where you need the most work. You can get a free copy of your report once a year from each of the three major credit bureaus. Immediately take action to clear up any inaccuracies on your report.

2. Lower Your Debt-To-Credit Ratio

Your debt-to-credit ratio essentially describes how much your creditors were willing to loan you versus how much of that amount you’ve used. It’s also referred to as credit utilization. The lower the percentage of available credit you’re using, the higher your credit score. While you can help improve this ratio by moving balances around to reduce utilization percentages, raising your credit score is much more likely if you are able to pay down balances without creating more debt.

3. Pay Down Loan Balances

Lower loan balances can mean a higher credit score. Making extra payments or payments larger than the minimum as prescribed by your lenders can go a long way toward chipping away at your loan balances. If you’re aiming for a significantly higher credit score in a hurry, you might consider finding a way to obtain a lump sum of money to pay down your loans. Paying off large loans like car loans and mortgages can have a big effect on your debt-to-credit ratio.

4. Make All Payments On Time

One single late payment can have a negative impact on your score that seems disproportionately harsh, though, unfortunately, an on-time payment won’t come close to making a positive impact as drastic. Make sure that you’re paying all your payments on time, especially the ones that report to credit agencies. This could be your mortgage payment, car payment, credit card payment or even rent if your landlord reports to the credit agencies.

Tip: Be Careful About Closing Unused Accounts Or Opening New Accounts

Opening and closing accounts can have unpredictable effects on your FICO score. Even if you’ve paid off a credit card and don’t plan on using it again, it could potentially hurt your score to cancel it. Opening new credit accounts should only occur as needed, rather than as an attempt to raise your score.

Getting access to your home equity and using it to pay down personal debt to lower balances and improve debt-to-credit ratio is another way to make a quick, positive impact on your credit score. If you’re able to add in paying rent to a reporting landlord, you may see additional benefits, so long as you pay on time each month.